Garden Minute: Find the Shadow Line

Between our garage and our neighbors' garage lies a long, narrow bed. We've got lots of bulbs in there, and this time of year, it's clear exactly where the shadows fall in that bed.












In case you can't divine from this photo the orientation of our lot, here's a compass in the image to help you out. As the sun comes up in the morning, from the near end of this bed (East), our garage casts a shadow.












The other funky thing in that bed is our newish tree. It's toward the back of the bed in front of the World's Ugliest Hedge. It's a Perrotia (a.k.a. Persian Ironwood), and it's one of those trees that keeps its dead leaves until it buds out again in the spring. It was full of orange/brown leaves all winter; only in the last week has it shed most of its leaves.